[Leica] Leica Article in LA Times

[leicanikon at earthlink.net (Stephen Gandy)]

There is a small Leica article in the LA times today, April 25, 2005
www.latimes.com

you have to register to see the article,
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avoid spam

the article talks about a stock split, and hard financial times as Leica
adjusts to the digital marketplace.   According to the article, Hermes
is advocating a spin off of  Leica's "digital partnership with Panasonic
of Japan"  (a bad idea in my opinion).

I believe Leica's real troubled started when the Leitz family sold Leica
decades ago, giving control of the company to bean counters who never
completely understood Leica's products or Leica's devoted customers.
Unfortunately the bean counters only excel at beating their chests
proclaiming how great the product is (they would do the same MBA
standard rhetoric if the same execs were running, say a fashion scarf
company).  The problem for decades is fundamentally that the Leica Board
of Directors simply does not know what products to bring out,  what
product improvements need to be made,  or what products to stop
production on to cut losses, simply because the Board is not comprised
of Leica photographers. Worse, the Board does not see its own
shortcoming because of overwhelming pride.   I believe Leica can be not
only fixed, but brought into continued profitability.  But that won't
happen until professional Leica photographers are making the product
line and marketing decisions, not bean counters.

Stephen Gandy